ROSE & JOSEPH

The tall woman ties her black hair up, looking at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. It's almost 11 PM, and she's ready for her night shift at the children's home she works at.

She gets in her car, and starts driving through the district, turning her radio on but not really listening to it.

Because it's 11 PM, and she kind of wishes she would be sleeping right now. She worked from 8 AM to 5 PM already, and clearly hasn't sleep enough.

But it's okay, she tells herself, the children are going to take my mind of off my tiredness.

The children she works with always do. They are adorable, and so precious. She always thought that we don't inherit the world, we borrow it from children. Such little angels. She thinks about them as she parks into the parking lot that's behind the small building.

As soon as she gets into it, a smile appears on her face when she sees Daniela.

"Hi Daniela! How are you doing?" She asks the middle-aged woman, smiling wide.

"Good evening, Rose. I'm doing just fine! You know, we had a new incoming this evening, and you have to take care of it as soon as you can." Daniela answered, returning her smile.

"Of course! What room?"

"107."

Rose gives her a thankful smile before she starts to walk down to the elevator that will take her to the long corridor.

It must be a baby, she thinks to herself, the first floor is only babies rooms.

So she decides to find it out by herself, and she can hear that her guess was good because as soon as she arrives on the first floor, she can hear a baby crying in the back of the corridor. She hurries over there, and as soon as she opens the door, she turns on a small light.

The walls are painted a pale green, and is decorated with framed pictures of different things, in different sizes.

"Well hello there..." She says in a very calm voice as soon as she gets into the room.

She slowly walks to the crib, and the baby stops crying, but whimpers until Rose is standing near her.

And when she sees the baby, Rose can feel her chest fill up with an unknown feeling, and she doesn't know why.

She goes to the small table, to find informations about this baby. And she finds it, in what seems like a small notebook. She opens it, and finds a picture of a much younger baby.

Jessica Ellen Cornish, born March 27th 1988 in Chadwell Heath, London.

The baby starts crying again, so Rose finally goes to her and slowly picks her up, while talking to her.

"Hi Jessica!" She smiles, and the baby looks at her with her big shiny brown eyes. "I'm Rose. Those are beautiful brown eyes. Now, what's wrong?"

The baby whimpers and Rose keeps talking to her as she goes to the changing table. She starts by changing Jessica's diaper, but she's still grumpy.

"Are you hungry? Yeah, is that what's wrong? Let's feed you then."

She gets out of Jessica's room, still holding her, and she goes to the big kitchen, but she stops mid way when she finds a toddler wandering in the hallway.

"Is that mister Griffin I see?" She says, and the little boy turns around. "Hello Griffin, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

He mumbles something about water and accident, and Rose tells him to follow her.

"We're gonna go and call Chelsea to help you, okay?"

"Okay."

They quickly find Chelsea, and she takes care of the little boy, so Rose can finally go to the kitchen and prepare a bottle of milk for Jessica.

"Let's see what we've got there." She talks to the baby, while searching for a kind of milk adapted to her age. "Ten months... Oh no, you're too small for that... Three to six months. Jackpot."

She keeps talking to the little girl, but mostly to herself, until she's done feeding her.

That's when it all starts.

Now that Jessica's changed and fed, she looks like she's in a good mood, and she's full of smiles.

"What a beautiful smile you've got!" Rose smiles, softly stroking the baby's blonde hair.

While she's walking back to Jessica's room, Jessica seems to be tired, because she quickly falls asleep in Rose's arms. So she puts her back into her crib, and caresses her little chubby cheek.

For some reason, Rose can't help but to look at this little girl with this kind of unsettling feeling in her chest.

She doesn't know if it's the way Jessica looks at her, with her beautiful brown eyes, but she has this feeling, like it's her duty to take care of this baby as hard as she can.

-

Even when working with other, older children, Rose always finds herself thinking about Jessica. And she knows that if anyone knew, she'd be considered like a creep, but she can't help it. She keeps wondering if she's okay. Is she hurting? Has she eaten? Is her diaper clean, or does she need it to be changed? Maybe she's crying right now.

Even when she's home, she wants to go back to work and look after her.

So before she goes home, Rose finds herself in the elevator to the first floor, and entering room 107. Now that Jessica's staying there, her name is on the door, and Rose thinks that this is the cutest thing ever. She steps into the room, and obviously find Jessica sleeping on her back, with her thumb close to her mouth.

She looks so peaceful. Rose thinks, looking at the baby's thin and short blonde hair.

She could cry right now, just from how cute Jessica is. Rose can't believe that parents could have such an angelic child, and just decide to be the worst parents. This child deserves the world, just like every other child.

The brunette wipes the tears that had fallen from her eyes, and she turns back to get out of the room.

It's 7 AM now, she has her whole day off and she'll only see her coworkers and the children tomorrow, at 9AM.

She passes by the kitchen to see the older children who are already awake, including one of her personal favorite, Isaiah.

"Hi Isaiah! Did you have a good sleep?" She asks, giving him a high-five, and the little boy nods, his mouth full of cereals. "Well I'm glad!"

"Rosie go home?" He asks, and Rose nods.

"Yeah, I'm going home to have my sleep too!"

"See Georgie?"

"Yes, and Georgie's even going to sleep in my bed!"

"Oh Georgie!" The little boy giggles, and Rose smiles.

"Have a good day everyone."

"Hey guys, say bye-bye to Rosie!" Says Chelsea, and every children raise their hands to say bye.

So Rose does the same, and gets to her car, smiling.

-

When she wakes up, it's because her dog's taking all the covers.

"George... move." She says, groggily, and her dog wakes up.

He stands up and moves to her feet.

"Thanks, George. Come here." She calls him, and he jumps on her. "Ouch. Gentle!"

She pets him for a few minutes, before deciding that it's time for her to have breakfast.

It's only 10 AM, she took a nap so she could sleep a full night tonight.

She decides to use pancake mix, and she finds herself thinking about Jessica again.

She eats her breakfast pretty quickly and goes to take a shower, then she plops down on her couch with her dog.

She watches whatever movie is playing right now, and her doorbell rings, making George bark.

"Shush, Georgie." She says, and she opens the door.

"Hi Rose." The man says, and Rose rolls her eyes.

"What are you doing here, Joseph?"

"I'm just... I... I miss you, Rose."

"Look, we've talked about this before. There's no way, Joseph, I'm not- I'm not taking you back! Not after what you did."

"I told you how sorry I am! I wasn't myself, I... She manipulated me."

Rose snickers.

"Oh come on. Is that all you got? You look ridiculous right now."

"You, come on! Give me another chance!"

"Heck no! I won't do the same mistake three times. I trusted you, and you betrayed me, two times. Two times, Joseph! So get out of here, and stop coming over, God!" Rose gets upset, and Joseph sighs, before turning back and getting into his car.

What an useless man. Rose thinks before rolling her eyes and going back to the couch, with her dog.

-

When she goes back to work, it's 9 AM. She enters the living room, where a lot of kids are already awake.

She instantly catches Jessica's eyes, and the little girl smiles, and starts babbling. Rosie goes to her and picks her up.

"Hello beautiful, what a wonderful dress that is! You look so pretty!" She says, and the little girl touches her face. "Oh are you feeling my nose? Yeah?" Jessica giggles. "Is that so funny? Are you pulling Rosie's nose? Yes you are, you funny little girl."

She goes around, playing with the older kids that are not older than three, with Jessica in her arms. There's only two adults in this room, and one is busy with teaching a little girl how to tie the buttons of her dress. So when a toddler starts crying in a corner because he bumped his knee, Rose passes Jessica in her coworker's arms, and runs to the little girl. Her heart breaks when Jessica starts crying.

"It's okay, Cheryl. Look," she slightly pulls up the little girl's dress, "it's all good! Only a little scratch. Do you want a band-aid? We have lots and lots of band-aids. Which one do you want?" She picks up the little girl, and keeps talking to her as she hears Jessica starting to scream when she gets out of the room.

Her coworker on the other hand, is kind of struggling with a screaming baby, who's hopelessly staring at the door, and slightly kicking. Jessica screams even harder when Rose gets back, just to get her attention.

So Rose picks her up, and gives her a hug, which instantly calms her down.

This is no good. Rose thinks.

It's in the waiting room, waiting for her appointment, that Rose decides whether she should talk about it or not. But sadly, she doesn't have enough time to think about it.

"Miss Archer?" A woman asks, and she quickly gets up.

Rose walks to her office, and shakes her hand before sitting down on a chair she's used to sit on.

"So? How are you?" The woman asks, taking a pencil.

Rose sighs.

"I'm actually doing pretty good."

"Is everything going great at work?"

She immediately thinks about Jessica.

"Yes. Everything is going great at work, I love waking up in the morning and thinking that I'm going to get to see them. I love it."

"What about Joseph? Did you talk to him since the last time you saw him?"

Rose nervously plays with her fingers, and looks down.

"I- I mean I didn't properly talk to him, like-like, wanting to, to talk to him- I, I just..."

"Did he talk to you then?"

She lets out a shaky sigh.

"Yes. Yeah, he did. He actually... He came to my house this morning."

"And what did he tell you?"

"He... Well he came to my house but I didn't let him inside he was, like... On the front porch..." she nervously says.

"Rose? What did he want?"

"He just came to tell me that he misses me. And I told him- I told him I was done with him. He just wants me back."

"And how does that make you feel? That he wants you back?"

"I don't really care. He hurt me so bad... He really messed me up, and I don't- I just wished I could erase him from my mind and never see him again."

Mrs Browning writes on her little notebook, before asking Rose about work again.

"What did you do this week that was interesting, did you... did you make crafts with the children?"

"I did actually, on Monday. We made small hats for one of the kids' birthday this weekend. It was fun and they loved it."

Rose, thinks, before jumping right into it.

"And uh... There's this one baby, she... she came in a few days ago and I just seem to have like... I don't know, I just feel connected to this baby."

"What's her name?"

"Jessica. Her name's Jessica, she's six months old and she just, she's awesome. She's always smiling, I really feel like... I have this feeling in my chest when I see her, I have the need to make sure she's alright." She finally admits, and Mrs Browning looks at her.

"You really like this little girl don't you?" She smiles.

Rose nods. She does like her a lot.